ACRU Warns More Texas Counties

“If they don’t clean up their rolls, they risk being sued.”

— ACRU Chairman Susan A. Carleson

WASHINGTON D.C. (Nov. 16, 2016) — The American Civil Rights Union (ACRU) has sent notices to eight more Texas counties that they are in violation of Section 8 of the National Voter Registration (“Motor Voter”) Act. The counties have more registered voters than the citizen voting age-eligible population, according to official data from the U.S. Census and state voter registration offices.

In October 2013, the ACRU sent warning letters to 15 Texas counties, 11 Kentucky counties and several in Alabama. In Texas, the ACRU secured court settlements to clean up voter rolls in Terrell County in 2015 and in Zavala County in January 2016, and sued Starr County. This year, the ACRU also sued Philadelphia and won access to voting records, and filed suit against Broward County, Florida.

In 2013, the ACRU made history by securing court-ordered consent decrees for two Mississippi counties to clean up their voter rolls. It was the first time that a private entity had sued and won under the Motor Voter law.

The latest letters were sent on Nov. 14 to officials in Borden, Brooks, Culberson, Foard, Loving, Maverick, Stonewall and Upton counties.

“Voter rolls across America have been discovered that contain substantial numbers of ineligible voters, resulting in the possible disenfranchisement of legally eligible voters via ballot dilution that threatens to subvert the nation’s electoral process,” the letter states.

“Based on our comparison of publicly available information published by the U.S. Census Bureau and the federal Election Assistance Commission, your county is failing to comply with Section 8 of the NVRA. Federal law requires election officials to conduct a reasonable effort to maintain voter registration lists free of dead voters, ineligible voters and voters who have moved away…your county has significantly more voters on the registration rolls than it has eligible live voters.”

“Across the country, hundreds of other counties have more registered voters than people alive. If they don’t clean up their rolls, they risk being sued,” said ACRU Chairman Susan A. Carleson. “Every time an illegal voter casts a ballot, it steals someone else’s legal vote. We must protect the integrity of our elections, without which we cannot continue as a self-governing nation.”

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